Pearl hunting

Pearl hunting is the act of recovering pearls from oysters in the sea. Pearl hunting used to be the prime industry in the Persian Gulf region and Japan.

History

Before the beginning of the 20th century, the only means of obtaining pearls was by manually gathering very large numbers of pearl oysters or mussels from the ocean floor or lake or river bottom. The bivalves were then brought to the surface, opened, and the tissues searched. More than a ton were searched in order to find at least 3-4 quality pearls.

In order to find enough pearl oysters, free-divers were often forced to descend to depths of over 100 feet on a single breath, exposing them to the dangers of hostile creatures, waves, eye damage, and drowning, often as a result of shallow water blackout on resurfacing. Because of the difficulty of diving and the unpredictable nature of natural pearl growth in pearl oysters, pearls of the time were extremely rare and of varying quality. The Great Depression in the United States made it hard to get good prices for pearl shell. The natural pearls found from harvested oysters were a rare bonus for the divers. Many fabulous specimens were found over the years. By the 1930s, overharvesting had severely depleted the oyster beds. The government was forced to strictly regulate the harvest to prevent the oysters from becoming extinct, and the Mexican government banned all pearl harvesting from 1940 to 1960.

Pearl Diver

Pearl Diver (1944–1971) was a French Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career which lasted from 1946 and 1948 he ran thirteen times and won four races. His most notable achievement came in 1947, when he became the first French-trained horse to win the Epsom Derby since Durbar in 1914.

Background

Pearl Diver was bred in occupied France at Edward Esmond's Mortefontaine Stud in 1944. Esmond himself had fled the country for the United States in 1940 and the stud was being run by his son-in-law Baron Geoffroy de Waldner who faked the stud records to conceal the new foal's illustrious pedigree from the German authorities, giving him the pseudonym "Monsieur de Boscz". On Esmond's death in 1945, the yearling colt was inherited by de Waldner. As a two-year-old, Pearl Diver was sent into training at the Chantilly stable of Percy Carter, an Englishman who had been based in France for many years. Pearl Diver grew to be a big, powerful bay standing 16.2 hands high. Carter was responsible for the colt for all but a brief period in 1947, when he was stabled with Claude Halsey at Newmarket, Suffolk.

Pearl Diver (disambiguation)

Pearl Diver or Pearl Divers may refer to:

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